Saturated polyolefins, such as polyethylene and polypropylene are inexpensive, commodity polymers that find a wide array of uses because of their toughness, ease of processability, and resistance to degradation. In spite of these attractive properties, the absence of polar functional groups such as hydroxyl or carbonyl groups renders them ill-suited for applications requiring miscibility with polar pigments, adhesion, or barrier properties. Although polar functionality can be introduced into the backbone of these polymers, for example, by grafting of an anhydride such as maleic anhydride followed by imidization with a diamine or an alcohol amine, such methods tend to promote polymer cleavage, which lowers the molecular weight and/or increases the polydispersity of the polymer, thereby resulting in a polymer with poorer physical properties. It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a simple way of introducing polar functionality onto the backbone of polyolefins without substantially changing either the number average molecular weight or the polydispersity of the product with respect to the starting material.